Raiders lose to Chiefs, 16-10, in battle of bottom-feeders
Published: Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 2:58 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 2:58 p.m.
OAKLAND — Forty-four seconds left in the game, the Raiders trying to overcome a 16-10 deficit, just into Kansas City territory, and Darrius Heyward-Bey made his best play of the season. He caught a pass from Bruce Gradkowski and dragged his toes just before going out of bounds at the Chiefs’ 26-yard line. The replay official looked at it again, and upheld the play.
Enlarge |
The Raiders' Darrius Heyward-Bey drops a long pass in Sunday's 16-10 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.
CHRIS CHUNG / The Press DemocratHeyward-Bey has been hounded all season for his dropped passes and lack of production, and here he had positioned himself to be a hero. But on this team, it’s usually one step forward, two steps back.
The next play, Gradkowski — who replaced the ineffective JaMarcus Russell late in the third quarter — fired a pass right to the rookie at the Kansas City 9. Heyward-Bey tipped the ball, booted it, and it nestled in the arms of safety Mike Brown, who effectively ended the game with his second interception off a receiver’s hands. The Raiders had lost to the Chiefs, who came into the game 1-7.
On the sideline, Heyward-Bey dropped to a knee and lowered his head.
“You know he is going to battle with it,” veteran cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said of the young receiver. “He is going to battle with it tomorrow and the next day, but being a professional football player you have to let it go. He has to realize it’s not the only bad thing that’s going happen to him in his career.
True. If the Raiders’ past six years are any indication, many more terrible things are in store for Heyward-Bey.
The Raiders and Chiefs turned the clocks back to 1962 on Sunday, wearing uniforms from the days when the Chiefs were known as the Dallas Texans. Once they kicked off, they set back the game of football at least that far.
In a game befitting two of the NFL’s bottom-feeding teams, the action was dominated by dropped passes, boneheaded penalties, blown coverage, questionable coaching decisions and general confusion on both sides of the ball.
The Chiefs often looked ragged, but they made more plays when it counted.
“That’s a winnable game for us right there,” Oakland tight end Zach Miller said. “Offensively, felt like we left so many points out there.”
Perhaps this is the best indication of the ineptitude on display at the Oakland Coliseum: The teams combined to convert 3 of 31 third-down plays. And that was after marked improvement in the second half; they were 0 for 18 at halftime.
Or maybe it was a sequence early in the second quarter, with the Raiders down 13-10. Russell threw one of his best passes of the day on a fly route to Heyward-Bey; it landed in the rookie’s gut, and he dropped it inside the 5-yard line. On the very next play, fellow rookie Louis Murphy broke wide open in the secondary, hauled in Russell’s nice touch pass near the right sideline and ran down to the Chiefs’ 4-yard line; but the play was called back when left guard Robert Gallery was flagged for tripping.
No, wait. For pure comedy, it must have been Dwayne Bowe’s fumble on a completion in the third quarter. The ball bounced 20 yards downfield, advanced by a parade of Raiders — Jon Alston, Tyvon Branch, Nnamdi Asomugha, etc. — who tripped and flailed and ultimately failed to pick it up. Guard Brian Waters recovered for the Chiefs at the Raiders’ 32.
“We couldn’t get out of our own way this game,” Murphy said. “It was like we were hurting ourselves, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. We’d have a good play, but then have penalties back-to-back.”
Things couldn’t have started any more promisingly for the Raiders. On the second play from scrimmage, Michael Bush escaped a couple of arm tackles and roared 60 yards to the Chiefs’ 4-yard line, led by Heyward-Bey’s sustained block.
Two plays later, Justin Fargas dove into the end zone for a touchdown.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs lost a yard over their first two possessions, the first of which ended with Chris Johnson’s acrobatic interception of Matt Cassel’s deep throw to Chris Chambers.
But the Raiders lost steam, and the field-position battle gradually swung to Kansas City. After the Chiefs’ Ryan Succop and Oakland’s Sebastian Janikowski traded 50-yard field goals in the first quarter, Jamaal Charles got loose on a fourth-and-1 play and went 44 yards for a touchdown that tied the game at 10-10. It was K.C.’s first rushing touchdown in 10 games.
Succop added a field goal in the second quarter, and another in the fourth.
The Raiders did some good things. The defense forced three turnovers and kept Cassel somewhat off-balance. Oakland had 182 yards on the ground, led by Bush’s 119.
But the passing game is in a shambles. And even one of the team’s few bright spots this season, an ability to avoid penalties, came undone as the Raiders were flagged 10 times for 88 yards.
“We are not making plays,” Gallery said in the locker room. “When a guy in here says that he has had a good game, I think he’s lying.”
You can reach Staff Writer Phil Barber at 521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com.
All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be re-published without permission. Links are encouraged.
Comments are currently unavailable on this article